Aelin's Journey
by ThEcRaZeEcAtLaDy27
Summary: What if young Aelin had been rescued by a fisherman instead of Arobynn? How would her story be different? Find out in Aelin's Journey!
1. The Fisherman

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter I**

**The Fisherman**

It was the first nice day in March, and Ambrose Patrona didn't want to waste it fearing for his life. It was in the middle of the burnings in Aderlan, and he was worried that his extensive library of books would get him jailed, sent to Endovier, or worse. So he gathered up his rod and tackle box, got in his small boat, and set out on the river.

_The fishing is good today_, he thought happily as he landed another trout. These would get him at least enough money at the market to bribe the Aderlan soldiers who searched his house routinely to pretend they hadn't seen anything. Maybe there'd still be enough for dinner, depending on how much he caught.

Suddenly, he heard a sound. It sounded like something gurgling and thrashing - Some_one_, he corrected himself as he saw the small figure waving around in strange, jerky movements. It was too small to be an adult. Did Aderlan now stoop as low as throwing living children into the rivers? Ambrose spat, disgusted. He contemplated hooking the child's hair with his rod's hook and reeling it in, but then decided against it. It was moving around too much - he might accidentally poke it in some undesirable places. And he couldn't just leave it here - it would surely die. There was no choice, he realized. He'd have to dive in.

Ambrose tore off his shirt, took a deep breath, and jumped feet-first into the water. The freezing river took all his breath away, but he swam fast towards the child - it was a girl, he realized, with long, flowing golden hair. She couldn't be more than ten, and she somehow didn't look like the sort of girl who would fall into a river on accident. This had to have something to do with the burnings. He was sure of it.

Ambrose grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and led her slowly back to his boat. Out of the blue, she started kicking and thrashing against him as hard as she could. Trying to get free, he realized. _Poor thing_, he thought while paddling as fast as he could to his boat, which was slowly drifting away in the current. _She probably thinks I'm some sort of Aderlan soldier._

He was starting to heave himself and the girl onto his boat when a strong pulse shot through the water, flipping his boat over and dumping his rod, tackle box, and fish into the water below. Ambrose made a desperate grab for his boat, which was floating away from him fast, but missed, and he watched in despair as it floated away from him down the river.

But then another pulse came, this time from the other direction, bringing his boat right back to him. He pulled himself and the girl, who had stopped thrashing up onto the upside-down boat.

Ambrose took a good look at the girl, who was unconscious. She was even younger than he thought - probably seven or eight. He cursed Adarlan for the second time that day. Who in all of Erilea would toss a defenseless child into a river?

A third pulse then came through the river, flipping the boat back over. Fortunately, Ambrose retrieved both it and the girl before paddling (the paddles had been under the benches of the boat and thus had been salvaged) back home.

The first thing Ambrose did when he got back to his house was lie the girl down on the bed in the guest bedroom and put a wet towel on her forehead. She looked so peaceful lying there, with her eyes closed and seaweed tangled in her bright, golden hair (he was going to have to do something about that). She was wearing a T-shirt that looked like it had once been nice - she was probably from an upper-class family, maybe even nobility.

She awoke, and opened her eyes tentatively. "W-who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Ambrose." Ambrose said soothingly. "I rescued you from that river, remember?"

"Oh." She said. "I thought you were someone who'd hurt me. I'm in Aderlan, right?" She paused, and Ambrose nodded. "Well, the king of Aderlan sent assassins to kill me and my parents while we were sleeping. Apparently they couldn't find me, because when I woke up, my mom and dad were dead, and I wasn't. I got the sense that I should probably leave, so I tried sneaking out, but one of the assassins spotted me, and cut the bridge over the river while I was running across it. I fell in, and I thought for sure I was going to die, but you rescued me."

All the things that that girl had went through! Ambrose blinked tears from his eyes. If he had been her age and had gone through the things that she had, he would have been permanently traumatized. The girl didn't even seem fazed!

"Who were your parents?" Ambrose finally said.

"Oh, they were the king and queen of Terrasen." she said matter-of-factly. "I thought you'd know because of my eyes."

Before Ambrose had time to react, the door swung open and in came two heavily armed soldiers bearing the Aderlan royal sigil on their uniforms. "Well, well, well." One of them said. "What do we have here?"

As fast as lightning, the girl bolted out the door and left the old fisherman to his inevitable fate.


	2. The Innkeeper

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter II**

**The Innkeeper**

It had been a good day for Lillian Crane. Her inn was bustling, and she had pocketed a good fortune from the people staying at her inn, which she had dubbed the _Crane Inn._ She didn't really care that most of them probably were refugees from other kingdoms that were worse off than Adarlan, as long as she had enough to feed her family of eight.

The door creaked open and a girl of about ten and her mother, who was carrying a small bag, walked in. "Please," said the mom in a light Fenharrow accent, "can we stay for free? We can pay you back later."

Lillian contemplated the offer. On one hand, she already had more than enough money to buy dinner that night, and "later" could mean a day when she was much worse off. Plus, both of them were covered in dirt and wearing torn and ratty clothes. On the other hand, they looked so much like refugees that they would give her inn's rather mixed population away if the Aderlan soldiers ever caught them. "Sure", Lillian agreed tentatively, "but you have to stay in the secret room."

"Ok," the mother said, putting her arm around her daughter. "Where is it?"

"Top floor, all the way down the hall, to your right." As Lillian finished, the girl raced up the stairs, presumably to see her room. The mother shrugged apologetically and calmly followed her daughter.

"But there's nothing here!" The girl cried out from the top floor.

Lillian sighed. "Just push the wall open!" She called back. "It's a hidden door!"

"Cool!" She heard the girl exclaiming. "Just like that story, right, mom?"

"Yes, dear." the mother said. "Now let's get unpacked."

Just then, the door opened again and in came a little girl with flowing golden hair and bright blue eyes, rimmed with gold - Ashryver eyes, she realized. That would _not_ fly with the Aderlan soldiers. Even so, Lillian said as sweetly as she could, "How can I help you?"

"H-how many nights will these buy me?" The small girl pulled out a handful of gold and jewels.

Lillian's eyes widened. "Those will buy you a year, if not more!" She now had so many questions swimming in her head that it was all she could do to force them down. She remembered Rule 1 of _The Innkeeper's Code_: Never_ violate anyone's privacy_.

The girl's eyes widened. "I only need to stay a night, though." she said meekly. "Will this do?" She extended a hand to Lillian, bearing a small ruby that was worth a small fortune.

"Y-yes." Suddenly the innkeeper had an idea. "Is it okay if you share a room? You won't take up much space, and there's another girl your age staying here with her mom right now."

"Okay!" The girl followed Lillian up the stairs to the secret room. She opened the door slightly and poked her head through.. "Is it ok if this small girl stays with you? Just for the night."

"Hmm…" Lillian heard from inside the room, and then a "Pleeeease?" and then "Alright."

Lillian let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as the girl with the golden hair cautiously walked into the room. "Hi, I'm Aelin", she heard as she walked back down the stairs. The innkeeper stopped with a jolt. _Aelin,_ she thoughtas she stated jogging down the stairs. _Aelin as in Aelin Ashryver Galathynius? Aelin Fireheart? The heir of Terrasen is staying in my inn?_

This didn't stop her from quietly eavesdropping on the two girls' conversation. "Wait," the refugee girl said, "do you mean Aelin Galathynius, heir of Terrasen?"

"Yup."

"Ooh, can you show me some fire magic?"

"Are you sure? I don't have very much control over it yet."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay…"

"Nothing's happening."

"That's weird… It's not there."

"What do you mean?"

"My magic - it's gone!"

"Gone? Are you sure?"

"Yeah…"

_Aelin Galathynius' magic was gone? _The innkeeper trotted down the stairs as the doorbell rang. It could have just been a fluke, but… she felt a sort of emptiness in the air. Was magic _gone_? Really, truly _gone_? What the hell was going on?


	3. The Refugee

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter III**

**The Refugee**

"Oh! I never told you my name!" The ten-year-old refugee said to the heir of Terrasen. "It's Sorscha."

"Nice to meet you, Sorscha." The eight-year-old princess extended a hand which Sorscha shook vigorously. "I wonder if there are any books in here?"

Sorscha smiled. "Well, it's a secret room, isn't it?" She motioned for Aelin to follow her. "What good would a secret room be without a secret library?"

They then started poking around every corner of the secret room and prodding all of the floorboards. Their search lasted thirty minutes, but all they found was an old collection of science textbooks.

"Disappointing." Sorscha prodded _Basic Anatomy _with her foot.

Suddenly, the entire wall turned around to reveal a stone wall with red symbols that were shaped like an archway and looked like they were written in - "_Blood." _Aelin grimaced. Somehow Sorscha could tell that the young princess had seen enough blood in her short life.

Sorscha flaked a piece of dried blood off of a symbol that looked like a star and sniffed it, much to Aelin's horror. "Seems like this has been here a long time."

"Do you think this led to a door of some kind?" The younger girl said.

"That's impossible."

"Want to try reopening it?"

"Are you _crazy_?"

"Yes."

"Don't you think we're going to get in trouble?"

"Your mom's dozing off."

"Ok…"

Aelin took a dagger out of her boot. Sorscha stared, open-mouthed. "Why in the world do you carry a dagger in your boot?"

"If you're the lost queen of Terrasen, you never know who or what might show up."

"You're not the queen, you're just a princess! Your parents are the king and queen!"

"I am now." And with that, Aelin took the dagger and sliced open her hand. She winced as blood spilled from the wound, and she dipped a finger in it and started carefully retracing the symbols.

"I thought you hated blood", said the older girl.

"Not my own, other people's." Aelin responded. "There's a difference."

She finished tracing the marks and stepped back. A doorway formed, leading to a long walkway. Aelin smiled mischievously.

"Do we go in?" Sorscha asked nervously.

Aelin shuddered. "No way."

"Then what was the point of this?"

"I think this was used to summon something."

"What if we don't like what it summons?"

As if on cue, a hideous, snarling beast jumped out of the portal. Aelin cautiously pulled out her dagger, slowly backing into the far wall.

Then the weirdest thing happened. The beast_ spoke._ "Who may I kill for you?"

The two girls looked at each other, both wide-eyed. Sorscha could see a smile slowly developing on Aelin's face. "The King of Aderlan." She said.

The beast took off, followed by a few screams.

"I think you may have just signed the death warrant of the most evil man in the world." Sorscha said.


	4. The Crochan

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter IV**

**The Crochan**

Samara strolled down the stinking, filthy street, whistling a jaunty tune as she did. The Crochan didn't like living by a trash heap, but this was the only place she could go where humans didn't bother her (By _bother_, she meant _chase around with pitchforks and torches_).

She arrived at her house, the only occupied house in a row of deserted ones. She sighed, and wondered again why she had to live in this miserable place. _Why do humans have such a huge aversion to witches?,_ she thought. _All witches aren't bad - those awful, bloodthirsty _Ironteeth_ give us a bad name._

The witch kicked off her shoes, went inside, flopped down on her easy chair, and began to read. She hated reading fiction - what was the point? Instead, she read her cookbook, pondering what to make for dinner that night.

Suddenly, Samara heard a roaring, clamoring sound from outside the window. She peered outside. A mob, complete with the usual pitchforks and torches was moving steadily closer to her. Panic seized her, and she jolted up from the chair. She took the stairs, two at a time, to the roof, and grabbed her broomstick.

She hadn't flown for so long. She could hardly wait to feel the wind push against her back, whistling in her ears as she sped off on her broom. She always felt so _free_ when flying. She mounted and got ready to take off. She pushed off the roof, and -

It wouldn't budge.

She heard the mob smashing in through her front door as she thought of _anything_ that would be causing her broom to malfunction. As it had always worked flawlessly before, this was a rather difficult task.

The front of the mob was already coming up the stairs. Samara mentally searched through every book about brooms she had ever read. No troubleshooting chapters or anything.

In desperation, she tried to force the broom off of the ground. Miraculously, she felt herself flying just as the front of the mob reached the roof. Just for fun, she cackled evilly. She couldn't go back to her home anyway.

Samara let out a whoop as she flew, and then -

Suddenly, the broom was in freefall. The Crochan screamed right up until she hit the ground and darkness swallowed her.

Samara awoke in the middle of a forest clearing. She wasn't far from her house, she realized. She could smell the familiar scent of her garbage dump, and her sense of smell was bad, even by mortal standards.

She paced around the clearing. How long had she been out for? Not long enough for her to heal, if her aching ribs were any indication.

She took a few blackberries off a bush and popped them into her mouth. They tasted delicious, but they were nowhere near enough to satisfy her hunger.

Samara heard a crying sound from deep into the forest. Her head jerked to the direction of the noise. She wasn't exactly the heartfelt type, but she wouldn't leave someone crying alone.

She limped over to the edge of the clearing and started walking through the forest towards whoever was making the sound.

Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming urge to turn back. Did the gods _want_ this person, or whatever it was, to keep bawling?

The source of the crying, Samara discovered, was another Crochan witch. She was leaning against a tree, bawling.

"What's wrong?", Samara said cautiously.

"T-they killed them…" The other witch let out a huge sob.

"Who?"

"M-my witchlings."

"Oh, that's horrible! Was it the same mob that drove me away?"

"Maybe… I don't know."

"C'mere."

The two witches embraced. "It'll be okay", Samara soothed.

"You look delicious", said the other witch.

Samara didn't have time to scream before Manon Blackbeak snapped her neck.


	5. The Guard

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter V**

**The Guard**

The Left High Royal Guard, or _the Left_, as everyone called him, was not having a good day. The Right had called him "Lefty" one too many times and they had gotten into a fierce argument, the King hardly had any visitors, so he had no conversations to listen in on and was thus supremely bored, and now this gods-damned demon was trying to kill his king.

The Left flanked on the disgusting thing's backside, and the Right faced its front. As the demon was distracted by dodging the Right, the Left slashed at it and made a brutal gash in his tail and it turned to face him, snarling.

He backed into a corner as the demon advanced on him. Was this how he would die? He thought about his family - his wife and two little daughters, one three and one five. _I should have spent more time with them_, he thought sadly.

Suddenly, the Right slashed his sword, cutting off its tail entirely. The demon roared and backed away.

"Thanks, Righty", the Left said to him. "I thought I was a goner!"

"No problem."

The two High Royal Guards soon realized that they had a bigger problem, though. While they were talking, it had advanced on the King and was three inches from ripping his throat out.

The two guards rushed to the scene, but the problem had already been taken care of for them. The king had written a few weird symbols on his throne's dais and the demon had been blasted back.

Apparently, though, the demon wasn't quite ready to give up. It charged the king headfirst, and before they could stop it, the king was dead.

The High Royal Guards exchanged a glance.

"That thing just killed our king." The Right was evidently shocked.

The demon wasn't done yet, though. It evidently wasn't ready to forgive the two men who had chopped off his tail.

"RUN!", the Left screamed as the demon barreled towards them. He and the Right zoomed past the corpses of the two Door Guards, down the stairs, and out of the glass castle, the demon close behind. He made sure to take the back alleys to minimize the number of innocent people the demon trampled.

The demon followed them into a dead-end street. They were cornered!

Suddenly, the demon turned and started climbing the wall of the_ Crane Inn_ with frightening speed.

The two members of the High Royal Guard looked at each other again as the demon disappeared into a top-floor window.

The Left threw open the doors and sprinted up the stairs of the inn, despite the innkeeper's protests. He had to stop it before it hurt anyone else!

He reached the top floor of the inn and found no door there. _Probably some secret chamber_, he realized, _that can only be reached by window._

He shrugged. If it wasn't going to hurt anyone, that was fine with him. He went back down the stairs of the inn to the Right, told him what had happened, and together, they went back up to the castle.


	6. The Mother

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter VI**

**The Mother**

**A/N: I have been spelling Adarlan incorrectly the past chapters. The mistake is not going to happen any longer.**

Sorscha's mom knew her daughter was hiding something, and that this princess was in on it, but she had no proof, that is, until she was awoken on the first morning of her stay at the _Crane Inn_ by her daughter and the princess speaking in hushed tones. She creeped around to the door of her small bedroom, which led to the main space of the secret room.

The two girls were holding a newspaper, talking excitedly among themselves.

"I can't believe it actually _worked!_", her daughter exclaimed quietly.

"Me neither!" The princess looked excited.

"Wait." Sorscha thought for a minute. "What if Dorian isn't any better?"

"Well, we _do_ have a terrifying monster at our disposal."

At that point, Alina (Sorscha's mom) put two and two together - the girls had a demon that they had unleashed on the King of Adarlan, and it had killed him. Alina didn't care that the king was dead, after all, he _had_ issued the order to burn down their village. But no-one, especially two small children, should have the power to bring death to anyone they wanted.

"Ahem." Alina stepped into the main room.

After Alina had given the girls a stern talking-to, in which she told them never to use the portal again, and reminded them that even the most evil people have families, too, she slumped in a chair to read the only book she had salvaged from the burning. She was savoring it, so she was only about 80 pages in. The girls were chasing each other around the room, playing some game they made up.

They heard a knock on the door (which wasn't really a door at all) and the girls stopped running. "Who is it?" called Alina from her chair.

"Lillian, the innkeeper."

"Come in!"

"Just wanted to let you know that the Aderlan soldiers are coming to do their routine check," Lillian said. "You guys were making a bit of a racket up there, so pipe down, or they'll hear you."

"Thanks!", said Alina cheerfully, and then turned her head around. "Girls, quiet down - The Aderlan soldiers are coming!"

"Ok!" came the reply seconds later.

Alina heard the Adarlan soldiers coming before they even entered the building. They were speaking so merrily to each other that she wondered if this was their first day on the job. _You won't be so cheery if you knew what you were going to have to do_, Alina criticized in her head.

The soldiers reached the_ Crane Inn_, and they started checking each room, making merry chatter with all of the occupants. Alina could hear every loud, obnoxious word of it.

After around twenty minutes, the soldiers finally reached the top floor.

"So this is where Lefty saw the monster come in?" The first soldier swaggered up tho the hidden door. Alina, who was watching through a crack in it, was horrified - she hadn't realized anyone had chased the demon.

The same soldier kicked as hard as he could on the hidden door, and it swung open, Alina jumping out of the way just in time.

"Well, well, well…" the second soldier sneered. "What do we have here?"

The third soldier put his sword at Alina's throat. "Go!" she cried to the girls, who bolted out of the room they were hiding in, past the soldiers, and down the stairs.

"After them!", the third soldier called to the first and second ones, who raced down the stairs.

All Alina hoped is that they would be alright.


	7. The Valg King

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter VII**

**The Valg King**

Erawan watched in grim satisfaction as the Ironteeth devoured her Crochan prey in the forest by the garbage dump. He liked this witch - she had unmatched bloodlust for any non-Valg. After the witch finished, she licked the blue blood from her lips and started to stride away, but was stopped by Erawan, who leaped from the tree he had been situated in right in front of her.

"_What_ do you think you're doing?" The witch's iron claws and teeth snapped out.

"I need your assistance." Erawan said boldly.

"What do you want my assistance with?"

"There is a child with dangerous powers on the loose. I believe only a fierce Ironteeth witch could stop her."

"We Blackbeaks do not stoop as low as taking the lives of children." The Blackbeak crossed her arms, iron nails and teeth still out. "Try a Yellowlegs. Absolutely no morality."

_This witch is very bold_, Erawan noted, then reminded himself that he was in a snobby noble's body.

"Convince me not to kill you right now." The witch said. "Who are you, anyway."

"Duke Perrington."

"You're hiding something."

Fast as lightning, Erawan threw the witch to the ground and put her in a chokehold. "Care to help me _now_?", he hissed.

"Fine." Erawan released the witch, and she stood up and dusted herself off. "But only because you're being an insufferable idiot."

"Good. Now, I'll tell you the details…"

Three hours later, right after Dorian's coronation, Erawan and the young king, whom he had given a black collar - he didn't want to make the mistake of putting a weak minion in such an important place again - were in the latter's throne room. They had dispelled everyone, including the Left and the Right, despite their protests.

"I want you to continue with your predecessor's plans." Erawan was careful not to say "father", for that might awaken the real Dorian, and he didn't want that. "I want to see the first other Valg prince in one of your guards by tomorrow."

"We won't have the collar ready by then, milord." The Valg prince bowed. "We need another year or so."

Erawan came close enough to his prince that he could see the struggle in his eyes. _This one's strong_, he thought. _Still fighting._

Erawan put his mouth to the prince's ear. "There is a _threat_ like none we have seen before to our kingdom," he hissed. "This is the only way we can vanquish it."

Erawan stepped back and said calmly: "Put all of your skilled men on the job. I want to see this collar finished."

"Yes, my lord."

Erawan gritted his teeth. "King."

"Yes, my _king."_


	8. The Baker

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter VIII**

**The Baker**

Sara Himin watched fondly as the crown was placed on the new king's head. She counted it as a blessing that the old king had been killed - he just kept raising taxes for wars of his own creation, and he kept authorizing searches of her bakery that disrupted business. She hoped this new king was better.

"What do we do now?", she heard a girl that was about ten years old with light brown hair and a slight Fenharrow accent say to another girl with stunning golden hair that looked a bit younger.

"We can't go back to the inn," the golden-haired girl said. "We could try breaking into the castle."

"Why?"

"Good point."

Sara got the sense that these two children were not normal kids.

"We could plead and beg at someone's feet until they take us in - what about that lady?" The younger girl pointed at Sara. "She looks pretty nice."

"I'll take you in," the baker said, "but only if you tell me who you are."

"Looks like she's been listening in," the Fenharrow girl whispered audibly to the younger one.

They then exchanged a few whispered words that Sara tried her best not to listen in on. After about half a minute, the younger girl came up to her and said, "Ok. Let's go back to your place. This isn't a public conversation."

"What about the backroom of my bakery?", Sara said. "My assistants won't know what to do without my orders - After a public event is always the best time to grab a bite to eat."

"Alright . But first, promise that neither you nor your assistants will tell on us to the Adarlan government."

"I promise." As far as Sara was concerned, and she was sure all of her assistants felt the same way, the Adarlanian government was just an inconvenience. Taxes, taxes and more taxes were all it was and all it stood for.

"Alright." The younger girl motioned in the direction of the bakery. "Onwards!"

"Let's start with the basics." Sara and the girls were in the bakery's backroom. "Who are you?"

"I'm just a refugee from Fenharrow. It's her who's remarkable." The older girl motioned to the younger one.

"Okay. Promise me you won't freak out." The eight-year-old looked as serious as an eight-year old could be.

"I promise."

"Alright. So, my name is Aelin Ashryver Galathynius." The golden-haired girl watched as Sara gasped.

"But what's a foreign princess doing in Aderlan?" Judging by the way the girls were looking at her, the look on the baker's face must have been priceless.

"I'm not a princess anymore." Aelin looked grim. "Here's my story." Both Sara and the Fenharrow girl started listening intently. The baker had a feeling that the princess's companion hadn't heard this either.

"One day, I woke up in the middle of the night to find my parents dead. An Aderlanian assassin had come and killed them. I snuck out of the castle, but the assassin cut the bridge across the river by it, and I fell in.

"But I had my fire magic, and I heated the river so that I didn't freeze to death. I'd had swimming lessons, too, so I could stay afloat for a few hours at a time. But a few hours is not forever, and I started to sink.

"Then, a brave fisherman found me and rescued me, but Adarlanian guards came and did their routine search of his place. Apparently they recognized me, so they started dragging the fisherman off. I took some jewels and ran, knowing that there was nothing I could do to save him, and that the jewels would have ended up in Adarlan's hands anyway.

"Then I found an inn, where I met her," - she jabbed her finger at the other girl "and found this portal with this monster and we told the monster to kill the king and it did. We both hated him because he killed my parents and he burned down her village."

"Wait, _you_ killed the king?", Sara butted in.

"Yep! Then Adarlainan soldiers came and took her mom," - Aelin pointed at the Fenharrow girl again - "and we ran. Then we met you."

Sara thought for a moment. "You guys can be my new assistants, if you want. I'll give you a place to stay in exchange for you help around the bakery."

Aelin started a whisper-conversation with her friend. After about thirty seconds, she said

\- "Done! We'll work three hours per day." A statement, rather than a question.

Sara didn't know what she was going to do with a bouncy, eight-year-old princess as her assistant, but she hoped it wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would be.


	9. The Blackbeak Heir

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter IX**

**The Blackbeak Heir**

Manon Blackbeak arrived at the Omega twelve hours after her "conversation" with the weird guy in the forest. She would have halved that time if she'd had her broom, but the Matron said they were "experiencing technical difficulties". If it had been anyone else, Manon would have called bull, but the Matron would probably give her a couple broken fingers for that.

After telling the Matron her new mission (and how this guy would make a _very_ dangerous enemy) she started walking to her rooms. She was thinking so much, though, that she ran smack dab into her nemesis - Iskra Yellowlegs herself.

"What the _hell_ are you doing in the Blackbeak wing?!", Manon screamed at her. "You _know _this is off limits. C'mon, we're going to see my matron and decide your punishment."

"Fine." Iskra shrugged. "I don't care. Your Matron can't do anything to punish me

anyway, according to the witch code that the Blackbeaks care _so_ much about. On second thought, though, aren't you breaking it yourself with that kid you're going to assassinate?"

"How, may I ask, did you learn that?"

"And _why,_ may_ I _ask, should I tell you?"

Manon gritted her teeth. "Never mind."

Manon and Iskra walked down the hallway to the Blackbeak Matron's room, the former sometimes giving the latter a sharp pinch just to show who was in charge. After ten minutes, they reached the room and Manon sharply rapped on the door.

"_What."_ The Matron opened a door with a scowl planted on her face.

"Iskra here was found snooping in the Blackbeak wing," Manon told her while fighting the smug look that was determined to put itself on her face. "I thought her Matron would be much too soft on her."

"Manon, you know I can't do anything about it. Now don't disturb me unless you have a good reason." The Matron slammed the door in Manon and Iskra's faces.

In bed that night, Manon thought about her situation. She hated Iskra. Hated her with all her might. If Manon killed this gods-damned Aelin girl, Iskra would tease her about it for the rest of their extremely long lives. That's when she decided - she was going to secretly help this girl kill the man from the forest. Anything to get back at Iskra. Anything…

Manon drifted off to sleep.


	10. The Captain

**AELIN'S JOURNEY**

**Chapter X**

**The Captain**

"What the hell?!" Chaol Westfall was furious. "Tell me why you abandoned your post, especially at a time like this!"

Chaol had spent the past hour and a half tracking down the new Right Door Guard to this beaten-down tavern on the outskirts of Rifthold, and he was absolutely livid by the time he got there. He'd missed a vitally important meeting while tracking him down, too, so he was ready to fire him on the spot.

"The king was just killed by some mysterious dark force and you spend your time getting drunk instead of protecting the new one?", he ranted at the young troublemaker. "Seriously?!"

"Well, I guess I'll just go back to my post…" The guard set his beer down and started slinking away.

"Oh, no, you won't. Drink all you want. You're fired." Chaol stalked out of the tavern, fuming.

"The king wants to see you, Captain." After Chaol had made his routine sweep of the castle grounds to make sure none of his other guards had abandoned their posts and promoted his most dedicated, hard-working guard to Door Guard, the Left High Royal Guard had come up to him and told him just that.

"Alright." Chaol assumed it was about the missed meeting. _That's okay, _he thought. _Dorian's my friend - he'll forgive me, at least if I apologize._

Chaol walked up to the king's chamber. He glared at the Door Guards before entering, silently warning them not to take after the old Right. He'd had enough of his guards' laziness that, he figured, from now on, if any guards abandoned their positions again, he ought to hold a formal trial for them instead of just firing them on the spot.

The Captain of the Guard entered the King's chambers and bowed, expecting Dorian would tell him that there was no need to do so, friends as they were.

Instead, however, the king only said "Rise, Captain," as if Chaol was only one of his ordinary subjects. Chaol was slightly confused by this. The only other people in the room were the High Royal Guard, and they answered to Chaol, so there wasn't a reason to be this formal.

"I summoned you here today to present you with a special honor," Dorian said, "for you are my longtime friend and have worked very hard in keeping the guard in check."

Chaol was astounded. They were good friends, but Chaol had just been made Captain last year, and wasn't expecting any honors.

"As this is a matter concerning my personal safety," continued the king, "I am extremely grateful. As a token of this, I present you with a black collar that matches mine exactly. This collar presents you as my favorite person and right-hand man."

Chaol was stunned. He stepped forward to take the collar that Dorian had produced from behind his throne, but instead Dorian said "Here, let me," and snapped it on for him.

The last thing Chaol saw before darkness swallowed him was his friend's smiling face.


End file.
